Present me the cash … it’s the Friday Weblog! – Toy World Journal | The enterprise journal with a ardour for toysToy World Journal

It might be sunny exterior, however Christmas is most positively coming – we all know that as a result of Christmas High 10 toy lists are already beginning to seem within the wild. First out of the blocks this 12 months was John Lewis, a retailer which in lots of respects could be described an ‘an outlier’ within the toy retail enviornment. Due to this fact, it was maybe no nice shock that its predictions are prone to be just a little completely different to lots of the lists which is able to comply with.

As ever, there’s a enormous query mark over whether or not August Financial institution Vacation is just too early to unveil a Christmas listing – though that mentioned, my native Morrisons has gone reside with a fixture that includes festive biscuits and muffins this week, so Christmas is clearly on many retail radars. There may be arguably some kudos to being the primary toy listing to hit the headlines, though quite a few the traces featured on the John Lewis listing received’t even be obtainable till October, so will probably be tough to precisely consider shopper response to the announcement. However what is definite is that the beginning gun has been fired, and we’re on our manner.

There are two commerce reveals subsequent week, which additionally presumably have their sights set on encouraging retailers to position their last festive orders. Happening concurrently for the primary time, and with solely seven miles between the 2 venues, it’s actually possible for some retailers to go to each Autumn Honest and the INDX Toy & Present Present in a single day – though an in a single day keep will make the journey much less frantic for these with additional to journey.

Second season reveals are a special breed. Occasions in January and February see a bunch of brand-new ranges being showcased, retailers with clear slates and recent budgets to allocate, they usually happen in the course of the majors’ autumn winter choice interval – in order that they’re considered as vital reveals for many suppliers and retailers (even when few bodily orders are literally written at Q1 reveals anymore). By September, main accounts have lengthy since firmed up alternatives, there are a handful of latest additions to ranges (however actually not wholesale adjustments) and retailers’ obtainable budgets are closely influenced by gross sales over the summer season and the present stage of inventory being held. On the plus facet, retailers visiting second season reveals are usually heading there to position orders, fairly than simply ranges that received’t be launched for one more six months. In a nutshell, autumn occasions can very a lot go both manner, primarily based on how buying and selling has been going, and the extent of confidence retailers have for the approaching months.

What occurs subsequent week will give some clues as to how retailers are feeling forward of the autumn winter interval. Have they cleared most of their summer season inventory? Have they got funds to spend? For larger accounts, is the buying and selling controller bullish on toys and is the FD snug with the steadiness between present ranges of inventory and recent spending plans? Are they open to the prospect of opening new accounts? Do they wish to clean up their product choice, or simply spend obtainable cash on merchandise which are already promoting effectively? Are they prepared to take a number of dangers and make a number of punts – or are they going to play it protected and keep on with tried and trusted manufacturers and suppliers?

At occasions like this, I typically recall an article from one in all our former contributors – Ali Mafi – recounting a dialog he had with a purchaser, who advised him: “Gross sales aren’t good in any respect in the intervening time, so we’re simply sticking with the accounts and ranges we’ve got.” Sure, a kind of “irony is useless” conversations all of us have with prospects on occasion. To be truthful, retailers are normally solely too conscious when they’re carrying deadwood, however that always must be handled first, with a purpose to make manner for brand new traces that can hopefully revitalize gross sales.

As ever, I’m going to each reveals with an open thoughts – I’ll report again subsequent week, with sincere suggestions on what I see and listen to. It additionally received’t be lengthy earlier than BLE opens its doorways for its twenty fifth anniversary occasion, which this 12 months takes place on the finish of September. I’ve been to each single BLE present for the previous 24 years and am wanting ahead to catching up with our licensing companions once more this 12 months. In case you’d like to satisfy up with the Toy World / Licensing.biz crew at BLE, be happy to drop us a line or give us a name – our diaries are actually open.

Certainly one of my favorite ever interviews passed off at one of many early BLE reveals, which was held on the Landmark Resort on the time. I genuinely couldn’t consider my luck after I was supplied the possibility to take a seat down with the legendary Gerry Anderson, creator of the enduring TV reveals which formed my childhood – Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and lots of extra. Nonetheless, I arrived on the stand to discover a fairly grumpy and disinterested Gerry: he had in all probability spent all day speaking to journalists who had simply requested him the identical bunch of boring, generic questions that everybody else had.

Earlier than we began the formal interview, I advised Gerry that I had grown up together with his reveals, and the way listening to the Thunderbirds theme tune caused a Proustian rush for many individuals of my age – that it was successfully an alternate nationwide anthem to us. This instantly modified his temper: he lightened up and fairly than trouble with all of the questions I had ready, we simply talked about his reveals for half an hour. He went magnificently off matter, telling me how a lot he was dreading the movie model of Thunderbirds which was in dialogue at the moment (eerily prescient, because it turned out). He additionally spoke at size about his ex-wife Sylvia Anderson, and never in an particularly flattering manner. I couldn’t use 95% of what he advised me that day, however it stays one of the crucial gratifying interviews I’ve ever performed.

It’s simply one of many the reason why I really like commerce reveals – the spontaneity, the unpredictability, the brutal honesty you generally encounter. I’m wanting ahead to the following spherical of reveals as a lot as I all the time do – see you there.